Surface magnetization in non-doped ZnO nanostructures

Abstract

We have investigated the magnetic properties of non-doped ZnO nanostructures by using {\it ab initio} total energy calculations. Contrary to many proposals that ferromagnetism in non-doped semiconductors should be induced by intrinsic point defects, we show that ferromagnetism in nanostructured materials should be mediated by extended defects such as surfaces and grain boundaries. This kind of defects create delocalized, spin polarized states that should be able to warrant long-range magnetic interactions.

8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Ferromagnetism as a universal feature of nanoparticles of the otherwise nonmagnetic oxides